There was a judge in NE Ohio that used to offer odd punishments. Judge Michael Cicconetti of Painesville Oh used to give offenders a choice on their punishment. Example: an 18 year old skipped out on paying a cab driver for a 30 mile cab ride. The punishments she was offered was the standard 30 days in jail or to walk 30 miles. Another woman left her dog in what amounted to a hoarder house for a week by itself. The dog was put up for adoption, but the woman was given the choice of 90 days in jail or spending 8 hours at a landfill picking up trash. A drunk driver ran a stop sign and injured a husband and wife. The normal penalty was 5 days in jail, but he offered her a chance to do a 3 day alcohol treatment course and she had to view dead bodies of accident victims. A guy that was arrested for disturbing the peace by cussing at cops and calling them pigs was offered an option of standing for 2 hours in with real pigs while holding a sign that read “These are not police officers”.
He usually does this sort of thing only for first time offenders and generally not for violent crimes. His recidivism rate for these cases is very low. The defendants are always given a choice between the standard punishment or his creative punishment. He doesn’t usually see the offenders in his courtroom ever again.